Grace built on Nature: Life of Dietrich von Hildebrand Part One
This is the first in a book review article series of the biography: The Soul of a Lion: Dietrich von Hildebrand, authored by Alice von Hildebrand. Here follows a summary of the life of von Hildebrand. This article covers his childhood and adolescence.
Dietrich von Hildebrand was born into a richly artistic and intellectual atmosphere. His father, Adolf von Hildebrand was a renowned German sculptor, whose career properly began in Florence, Italy, patroned by one Conrad Fiedler. What Florence was for Dante Aligheri and Michelangelo Buonarroti, that great Renaissance city became for Adolf too. Dietrich was also born into this richly artistic city.
Adolf’s wife, Irene von Hildebrand was no less gifted. She was a well-travelled woman, possessing wonderful mastery of Italian, French, English, and of course her own native German. She could read some of the greatest works written in Greek and Latin. All these without formal education: she became one of the better-educated grandes dames.
Dietrich von Hildebrand would be born last, the only boy among five sisters. All five sisters were - true chips of the old block - artistically very talented: masters of languages, classical music, painting and sculpting, and great critics of literature. Living among his sisters, Dietrich would develop an exquisite taste for art.
Dietrich's youth was lived in the magnificent Piazza San Francesco. A 16th-century monastery later secularised by Napoleon which Adolf bought later bought. It was a big house, admirably fashioned. As Adolf’s fame as a sculptor grew, San Francesco became host to many a number of great artists, intellectuals and even political figures such as William Gladstone, at one time British Prime Minister.
The artistic bar set at San Francesco was a very high one, “nothing tasteless, let alone vulgar or ugly was permitted to enter San Francesco. Fashion magazines were forbidden”. The beauty lived in San Francesco was an authentic one. Beauty was not confused with luxury, as is now common.
As a boy, Dietrich mastered French, Italian and Germany. He was homeschooled and he proved to be a precocious student. Through the table conversation of his parents, his interaction with his talented sisters, Dietrich developed an intellectual and artistic maturity far beyond his years. He was bound to love music, classical music not any other type. He particularly liked Wagner’s music: whose ethos and values he deeply appreciated. He, no doubt, considered Wagner to be one of the greatest world’s composers. Convinced that it was worthwhile to enjoy some inconvenience in order to savour some noble enjoyment, Dietrich one time spent nine hours standing, enjoying operas.
One thing was amiss at San Francesco: religion was uniquely absent. Officially protestants, Irene and Adolf, were noble pagans, disinterested in religious matters. Dietrich’s sisters too were all disinterested in religion, and here Dietrich stood in opposition. Though spiritually malnourished, the boy felt a deep hunger for religion.
The parents had their children baptised out of mere tradition. They could not realise the great supernatural dimension, namely the forgiveness of original sin and the infusion of the Holy Spirit, that lay beyond.
The deep reverence for religion that Dietrich portrayed even from a young age of five showed the inner working of grace, almost akin to Blessed Carlo Acutis’ early religious sensitivity, to the amazement of his family.
At one point, his youngest sister, Bertele, told him of their mother’s remark at table: that Christ was not really God, but as a son of God as any man. This shows their ignorance of religion. To Bertele’s amazement, the boy solemnly said, “ And swear to you that Christ is God”.
The anecdotes continue. When he was to be baptised, at the age of six, the boy took the ceremony very seriously. He resented the general attitude that such ceremonies were conventional and devoid of meaning.
As a child, Dietrich used to prostrate himself before the great painting by Donatello, The Head of Christ, that his parents had placed in the house solely for its artistic merit. He somehow felt moved to adore Christ’s Holy Face.
There was another encounter, amazing and hilarious: at eight years of age, Elizabeth, his second eldest sister, took the boy to the great Cathedral at Milan, the Duomo di Milano. The Hildebrands had been taught to enter Cathedrals for the sake only of artistic appreciation. In this episode, much to Elizabeth’s chagrin, Dietrich insisted on genuflecting reverently at each altar.
As in religious belief, Dietrich’s intellectual bent even as a boy differed from all the rest in the home. Adolf’s intellectual and ethical stance did not at all impress Dietrich. Adolf’s ethical relativism, his pantheistic bent, and his amorality deeply upset his son. For years, Dietrich would try to sway his sisters' stance, who were devoted to their father, away from their father’s, especially in matters of ethics and religion. Dietrich’s intellectual journey was always based on objective truth and moral values.
Much as the artistic appreciation at Hildebrands’ home was commendable, it was unfortunate, and painful to Dietrich, that the Hildebrands thought aesthetic values to be superior to ethical values. Dietrich radically held the contrary, and true to his intellectual integrity, all his life he would hold to a hierarchy of values. Certainly, some things are more important than others, some questions more burning than others.
Besides his admirable spiritual sensibility, Dietrich was gifted two other graces: a deep appreciation for femininity and a profound respect for the sexual sphere.
Thanks to his encounter with the noble women that were his mother and sisters, Dietrich developed a rare sensitivity to the mystery of femininity. A sensitivity marked by a keen understanding of the female personality. Dietrich never fell prey to the misconception that women are “less intelligent”, on the contrary, it was his assertion that the male intellect was in need of the “feminine touch”, of a “feminine approach.”
Dietrich never understood the sexual sphere, sacred and mysterious, as separate from a total self-giving and a loving commitment. “A holy wrath would take hold of Dietrich when men spoke contemptibly or disparagingly of women.” Dietrich did have a number of romantic relationships in his youth. All filled with a noble pure love that sometimes went unrequited, but never filled with sensuality. The current youth surely, sorely, have a lot to learn from Dietrich.
Dietrich’s exposure to true Beauty, one of the transcendental three, his youthful characteristics, the classical upbringing in San Francesco, all produced fertile ground for the inner-working of the Holy Spirit and later for his conversion to the Catholic Church. Gratiam supponit naturam: grace builds on nature. Grace did build on nature.
The next article will discuss Dietrich’s university years climaxing at his conversion to the Catholic Church and his battle against Hitler.